


paris, or wherever we are

by icanhearyouglaring



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M, Fix-It, Rebuilding, Team Feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-21
Updated: 2019-08-21
Packaged: 2020-09-23 05:07:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20334568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icanhearyouglaring/pseuds/icanhearyouglaring
Summary: They get a second chance and don't waste a minute of it. A fix-it fic. (canon up to S3-midseason)





	paris, or wherever we are

“Victor, no!”

Somehow, in all the chaos of battle, the sound of Halo’s cry catches Artemis’s ear. Artemis swings her sword upwards and cuts through the Apokoliptian drone that’d been heading for her head. She spins around quickly, trying to find Halo’s aura in the fray of the invasion, but all she can make out is Victor, firing a beam from his arm cannon into the giant boom tube in the sky. The beam grows in width, engulfing Victor in a blinding light. Artemis gasps.

“Oh, _fuck_.”

Artemis takes one step towards the light, but a hand grasps hers and pulls her back.

“Run!” Dick shouts, tugging her along towards the relative safety of the city.

Artemis runs behind him, letting Dick guide her as she watches the light grow. Static flies past them, carrying an unconscious Jeff behind him on a metal door. Geoforce joins them in their mad dash away from the light, surfacing from beneath the ground beside them.

_There_, she thinks, catching sight of Halo, shining bright white, running straight into the light. _No!_

Artemis tugs her hand out of Dick’s grip, and starts turning back. “Halo!”

The light fills the boom tube and the tube begins to destabilize. Streaks of light steam out of the tube, firing down on downtown Coast City. The tall buildings bear the brunt of the impact, and the earth shakes, and glass rains from the near infinite amount of broken windows. It’d be a magnificent sight if it weren’t so horrifying.

“Everyone down!” is all the warning Artemis gets before Dick tackles her to the ground.

A beam of light strikes the side of the building beside them, and pieces of stone fall in the place they’d once been. Dick rolls off of her and helps her up, and it’s then they notice the stone that would’ve crushed them both is still hovering above their heads, and the ground they’d been standing on is a few feet lower than it had been a second ago. Brion cools down and leaves the ground where he left it as Tara moves the stone to build a barrier between them and the light.

“Are you all alright?” Tara asks, running down a staircase of her own creation.

“Yeah, thanks,” Artemis breathes out, staring at the sky. “Look.”

The white light turns to blue, then to green, to yellow, to orange, to red, until all of the colors start blending together in uneven waves and pulses.

“That can’t be good,” Brion notes, his eyes wide.

He’s right. A second after the words leave his mouth, the boom tube collapses completely, and the light _snaps_. The sound is louder than anything Artemis ever heard before, and she clasps her hands over her ears just like everyone else. It bowls them over, leaving them disoriented and unable to hear anything but a low-buzzing in their heads.

It takes a long minute but Artemis stumbles back to her feet and makes her way up the wall as fast as she can.

“Halo!” Artemis yells, hoping the girl will reveal herself in the stark darkness. There is no sign of Halo or Victor in the empty expanse that once was Liberty Park.

Artemis jumps down from the wall and makes her way towards the epicenter with uncentered balance.

“Victor!” Artemis calls, her pulse racing as the seconds tick by with no sign of either of them. _No, no, no, no, no._

She can feel Dick at her heels, shouting something she can’t quite hear or understand, but her focus remains on reaching the still-smoldering spot where the kids once stood. Shit, shit, shit.

When she reaches edge of the crater left behind by the blast, she falls to her knees. The vast crater is completely empty. _Nothing_.

“No,” she says thickly, her brows pinched. “_No_.”

A hand falls on her shoulder, and Artemis turns around, only to be engulfed in a tight hug. The familiar fabric of Halo’s suit brushes against her skin and it sends her into tears. Artemis hugs her friend tightly.

“You’re okay!” Artemis laughs, pulling back from the hug to see Halo’s smiling face.

Halo speaks, but none of the words break through the buzzing in Artemis’s ears.

“I can’t hear you–” Artemis points at her ears, “–the boom, it– I can’t hear– Is it over? Where’s Victor?”

Halo stops talking and takes Artemis’s face between her hands. She mouths some words, but in the darkness, Artemis is only able to catch the last word. She raises a brow.

“Souvenir?” Artemis asks, tilting her head.

Halo nods giddily before pointing at the others gathered behind her. All Artemis makes out is the back of Dick and Brion’s heads standing out above the heads of the rest of M’gann’s team. Victor is there, too, leaning against Forager. Artemis releases a small breath. Safe.

“What?” Artemis asks, turning back to Halo.

Halo shakes her head, grabs Artemis’s hands, and flies up, pulling Artemis into the air with her. Artemis’s head spins from the sudden movement, and it isn’t until Halo places her in the center of the circle that her vision clears and the buzzing in her ears is replaced by the sudden silence of the people surrounding her.

Artemis steadies herself, turns around, and freezes. Her eyes take in the bright yellow and red of the suit, the broken goggles around his neck, and the violent scar running along the right side of his jawline. It has to be a joke, a horrible, terrible, cruel, unforgivable joke, because this– this is impossible– this is unreal– this is–

“Artemis,” Wally says breathlessly, pulling himself out of Dick’s grip to step towards her. “Long time no see.”

He closes the gap between them in two short steps but it feels like an eternity before he’s standing in front of her. Wally holds his hand just beside her cheek, hovering so close she can feel the heat radiating from his ungloved hand. He keeps his hand there for a long moment, and his eyes hold hers as though if he touches her she’ll disappear. Artemis’s own hand moves of its own accord, stopping a centimeter away from the flash symbol on Wally’s chest. They both exhale before making the slightest of contact with each other.

_It’s not a joke._ Artemis bites at her lip to keep from crying out, but that does nothing to stem the onslaught of tears in her eyes. I_t’s not impossible._

“No kidding,” escapes Artemis’s lips in the smallest of whispers, as she moves her shaking hand up his suit to his face. She cradles the edge of his jaw in her palm as her fingers trace the scar running up his cheek.

“You’re really here,” Artemis manages to say, before she wraps her arms over his shoulders and pulls him close. He returns the tight embrace and her feet lift off the ground.

“I’m really here,” Wally repeats, like even he can’t believe it.

“Yeah, you are, man,” Dick says, clapping Wally on the back and laughing in between lingering sobs.

Artemis releases Wally from her death grip before taking his face between her hands and pulling him in for a kiss, and another, and another, and one more for good measure.

When they pull back, they’re both laughing and crying, and holding each other close. Dick pulls them both into a hug, which leads to all three of them falling to their knees. Wally sits on the ground and pulls Artemis into his lap while Dick wraps his arms around them both from the side. Artemis stays pressed firmly against Wally’s chest, her arms wrapped around him, but she makes room for Dick to place his head on Wally’s shoulder and quietly cry.

Everyone is talking, cheering, crying, but Artemis only registers the sound of M’gann’s quick scream behind the lingering ringing in her ears. She can’t see the others from her position or through her tears, but Artemis sure feels the impact when M’gann crashes into their dogpile and extends her arms around them all. Conner is next to join the mix as he reaches into the pile, finds Wally’s forearm through all the limbs, and holds on tight. Kaldur is last, settling on placing his hand atop Wally’s head and falling to his knees beside M’gann.

Artemis shuts her eyes tightly as the laughs and sobs keep coming, from all edges of their little circle. She drinks in this moment and bottles it up, storing it in her mind for when they all regain some semblance of composure. But who could blame them?

“Holy shit,” Wally says, his head bowed near Artemis’s ear, “I missed you guys.”

“We missed you, too.”


End file.
